Recommendations needed for great FCPS elementary school that is NOT a center school

[Anonymous]

I think that dashboard listed the enrollment of each school and the capacity but i don't have a link for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:12:59 again - granted, our neighborhood school IS a center school and that probably ups the student population by a couple hundred. But, I really thought that 700+ was pretty normal in FCPS.

Anyone have a list of enrollment #s at all FCPS elementary schools?

Our school still feels like a community, even with that many kids. Everyone seems to know everyone. I have always had wonderful interactions with teachers/staff/administrators.

700 certainly wasn't the norm in our area just a few years back. Our elementary school had 426 kids when we moved here 8 years ago. It's now around 600 and growing fast.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:colvin run is another school I was looking at. We ended up at Westbriar -- but it became a center this year...

Colvin Run is a huge center and totally AAP focused.

Agreed. You're better off at Westbriar. Yes, it became a center this year -- unfortunately -- but the school only has AAP 3rd graders this year. It will a few year before there are enough AAP classes to change the community feel of the place. And hopefully, if Principal Lisa Pilson stays true to her word and parents stay vigilant, it won't become a divided community like Louise Archer and Haycock.

Sadly, I agree with PP that no matter what it turns into home values will only go up. Too many folks want the exclusivity of a center and Westbriar is close to Tysons metro, etc.

The Westbriar "island" off Beulah near the Toll Road likely will get redistricted to Colvin Run and/or Wolftrap in a few years. It also now has the AAP center and is getting an addition. Between this and the new construction in Tysons, it will have a very different feel not too far from now - bigger, more urban, and more AAP-focused.

Bigger and more urban, I'll give you. More AAP-focused, not so sure. What are you basing that theory on?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:12:59 again - granted, our neighborhood school IS a center school and that probably ups the student population by a couple hundred. But, I really thought that 700+ was pretty normal in FCPS.

Anyone have a list of enrollment #s at all FCPS elementary schools?

Our school still feels like a community, even with that many kids. Everyone seems to know everyone. I have always had wonderful interactions with teachers/staff/administrators.

700 certainly wasn't the norm in our area just a few years back. Our elementary school had 426 kids when we moved here 8 years ago. It's now around 600 and growing fast.

Ours was low 500's when my now 11th grader started. I think it is now hovering near 700. Some of that is because they retain the majority of AAP students with LLIV. Another chunk is turnover and smaller bit is fill ins.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:colvin run is another school I was looking at. We ended up at Westbriar -- but it became a center this year...

Colvin Run is a huge center and totally AAP focused.

Agreed. You're better off at Westbriar. Yes, it became a center this year -- unfortunately -- but the school only has AAP 3rd graders this year. It will a few year before there are enough AAP classes to change the community feel of the place. And hopefully, if Principal Lisa Pilson stays true to her word and parents stay vigilant, it won't become a divided community like Louise Archer and Haycock.

Sadly, I agree with PP that no matter what it turns into home values will only go up. Too many folks want the exclusivity of a center and Westbriar is close to Tysons metro, etc.

The Westbriar "island" off Beulah near the Toll Road likely will get redistricted to Colvin Run and/or Wolftrap in a few years. It also now has the AAP center and is getting an addition. Between this and the new construction in Tysons, it will have a very different feel not too far from now - bigger, more urban, and more AAP-focused.

Bigger and more urban, I'll give you. More AAP-focused, not so sure. What are you basing that theory on?

There will be a lot more AAP kids there in a few years than now and the AAP kids will comprise a larger percentage of the total enrollment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:12:59 again - granted, our neighborhood school IS a center school and that probably ups the student population by a couple hundred. But, I really thought that 700+ was pretty normal in FCPS.

Anyone have a list of enrollment #s at all FCPS elementary schools?

Our school still feels like a community, even with that many kids. Everyone seems to know everyone. I have always had wonderful interactions with teachers/staff/administrators.

700 certainly wasn't the norm in our area just a few years back. Our elementary school had 426 kids when we moved here 8 years ago. It's now around 600 and growing fast.

Have you had a lot of older families without kids or with older kids moving and selling to young families with kids?

That has happened quite a bit recently in our area.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Terra Centre

Is that the school where it's underground and has no windows?

That school always fascinates me, especially when they started digging up the front this summer. Not to derail the discussion, but how did they start school this year with half of the front missing?

Is it like the hatch from LOST?

It is this:

http://www.google.com/search?q=terra+centre+elementary&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=cxs5Uru-HYSW2AWqzoGYCA&sqi=2&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1366&bih=658&dpr=1#facrc=_&imgrc=l1zT8KDfVX2wDM%3A%3BkdjfXO1zeQbb8M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fphotos.wikimapia.org%252Fp%252F00%252F01%252F70%252F74%252F28_big.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwikimapia.org%252F505019%252FTerra-Centre-Elementary-School%3B640%3B480

When we drive by, my kids always ask how they go to school without windows

I'd go crazy not seeing the light of day for 7 hours a day. Under all that flurouscent lighting. I'm surprised nobody has protested this. It might have a rain garden on it's roof, but doesn't seem very earthy otherwise.

There are windows in the school. The school is only built into the ground. It's not completely underground. I was very impressed by how light and bright it was in there when we first visited. The renovations are going to make it one of the most modern, "green (I think it's going to be LEED certified? not sure about that)" schools in the nation.
The school community is very warm and the teachers are great. Scouts, basketball, PTA -- everything is very welcoming and inclusive. We love it there!

+1, we love TC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:12:59 again - granted, our neighborhood school IS a center school and that probably ups the student population by a couple hundred. But, I really thought that 700+ was pretty normal in FCPS.

Anyone have a list of enrollment #s at all FCPS elementary schools?

Our school still feels like a community, even with that many kids. Everyone seems to know everyone. I have always had wonderful interactions with teachers/staff/administrators.

This report has the enrollment figures for schools last year: http://www.fcps.edu/it/studentreporting/documents/EthnicRpt12.pdf

The enrollments as of September 2013 should be online later this month or next month.

[Anonymous]

I have a 3rd grader and there are still some children she's never been with in a classroom. The school is around 600 with 3 classrooms per grade. With these larger schools, do the kids stay together in families like I've heard Mantua doing or do they mix it up each year? I have a friend with kids at Kingsview Ridge in Mongtomery County with 7 classes per grade and they say their kids have to make new friends every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hunt Valley or Orange Hunt.

Great neighborhoods, great people with smart kids that seemingly could care less about AAP.

Wow, the anti-AAP attitude on DCUM is finally becoming, "I want to avoid any chance of my child being in a school with an AAP center even if my child is in general ed." Without regard for the quality of the general ed in that school, or the overall "community feel." Yes, center schools are also community schools with community involvement.

Seriously, OP, look at any school as a whole. AAP students are just kids, and in four years when my child has been in an AAP center I haven't seen the kind of elitism or crazed intensity that DCUM posters constantly claim exists in the kids and the parents. I just never saw it, and I spent a lot of time in the school every week working directly with kids and teachers.

Don't make assumptions about an entire school just because it has a center or Level IV classes, and don't dismiss a school outright for just that reason. You might be denying your child a very good general ed program just because it is under the same roof as a center.

I think you are misunderstanding what PP is saying about OH and HV.

Many of the people at those schools have kids at the base school and center. It is just not a big deal in that community, whether or not the kids are at a center because all the schools are outstanding. Virtually no AAP drama in that community. People like their schools.

I am the first PP and that is exactly what I meant. There isn't the same craze about kids getting into AAP here, because the schools are great regardless. The parents are involved and the kids work hard, and there is not a heavy emphasis on going to an AAP center. And I agree that I see the same thing with other West Springfield and Burke schools.